Chennai : Two reactors of the Nuclear Power Corporation Ltd's (NPCIL) Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) that shut down after a power supply breaker tripped leading to a power cut early Sunday would restart generation around Aug 23, said a senior official here Monday.
"Around 1.15 a.m. Sunday, a breaker in 230 KV switchyard tripped resulting in power supply failure. The reactor's automatic shutdown process was triggered. Both reactors shut down their operations. Both units would come back to operation by Aug 22 or Aug 23," K. Ramamurthy, station director, MAPS, told IANS.
According to him, four standby diesel generators got into operation immediately when the main power supply failed.
"There was no sudden surge in power generation or supply that resulted in the breaker to fail," Ramamurthy said.
He said that the breaker that failed is one of the old ones, all of which MAPS is replacing.
"We have 11 such breakers and have replaced six units. Each component costs about Rs.20 lakh," Ramamurthy said.
"The moment the power failure happened the turbines tripped. We came to know of the incident immediately as the sirens sounded out," Ramamurthy said.
Located in Kalpakkam around 70 km from here, MAPS has two reactors of 220 MW each, but they have been functioning below their rated capacity owing to paucity of fuel.
"The fuel supply situation is improving. The first unit was generating 180 MW and the second around 160 MW. By the end of this year we expect the power generation to touch full capacity at both the units," Ramamurthy said.
The shutting down of the two reactors did not affect the fast breeder test reactor (FBTR) and the mini reactor Kamini located at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR).
A breeder reactor is one that breeds more material for a nuclear fission reaction than it consumes. Power supply to IGCAR comes from MAPS.
READ MORE...
No comments:
Post a Comment
This is an unmoderated blog. Please be professional and respectful as you post.